Burglary leads to probe of organized ring; four arrested

SANTEE – What began last month as a simple smash-and-grab car burglary has led Sheriff's investigators to what they believe is a meticulously organized ring combining burglary with identity theft and which may have at least 100 victims, sheriff's deputies said Monday.

Three men and one woman, all from Lakeside, have been arrested and deputies seized hundreds of stolen items.

“Credit cards, laptops, everything you can think of,” said sheriff's Sgt. Tom Poulin. “We're still investigating, but we believe we have the four who were working together.”

At least one suspected member of the ring had her own filing system of manila envelopes filled with credit cards and other personal documents; one for each person whose documents she had stolen, the sergeant said. She used those items to buy things from local stores until the cards were reported stolen, then moved on to the next file, Poulin said.

Detectives began tracking the group Jan. 30 after a car burglary outside a Chinese buffet restaurant in Santee in which a woman's purse was stolen.

Investigators eventually found a surveillance video showing a woman using a credit card stolen from that purse at a Target store across the street from the restaurant where the car was burglarized, Poulin said.

Investigators identified the woman in the video as Karen Caballero, 29, and went to her home last Thursday to arrest her. She wasn't home, but her boyfriend, identified as John O'Neill, 27, was there.

A records check on O'Neill revealed he was a parolee at large and deputies took him into custody, Poulin said. They then settled in to wait for Caballero.

“She was arrested as soon as she arrived,” Poulin said. “She arrived in a stolen car.”

Inside the stolen vehicle was a briefcase with shards of glass around it, he said. When deputies opened it, they learned it had been stolen from a different car that had been broken into earlier that day, Poulin said.

Last Saturday, deputies arrested two more men at a casino hotel on the Barona Indian reservation: Brian Hayden, 22, and Jason Verinek, 27, both of Lakeside.

In their room, “additional stolen property was found connected to our investigation,” Poulin said.

“Altogether, we've got hundreds of pieces of stolen goods,” he said. “They would be committing these car burglaries in Santee, Lakeside El Cajon, La Mesa, as far south as Imperial Beach.”

Other stolen goods were found from victims as far north as Rancho Bernardo.

“We have 100 victims that we know of so far,” the sergeant said.

Inside Caballero's Lakeside home, detectives found a filing system of identity theft, he said. “She would set up files on individuals for whatever info was stolen from them, manila envelope files,” Poulin said, adding she used those items – and the person's identity – to make purchases.